A small group of Millville residents seeking to oust City Commissioner David Vanaman from office... - 10:33 pm

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Millville City Commissioner David Vanaman

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Millville City Commissioner David Vanaman / Cody Glenn

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VANAMAN RESPONDS

The response City Commissioner David Vanaman filed with the city:

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In accordance with the provisions of N.J.S.A. 19:27A-13 we are requesting the recall of Commissioner David Vanaman in a special election due to the fact that Commissioner Vanaman has a strong conflict of interest as secretary of the Millville Fire Department and his appointed position as Commissioner of Public Safety.
This latter position puts him (in) civilian oversight of both the Millville Fire Department and the Millville Police Department.
Since he has been in office no layoffs have been proposed for the Fire Department and four officers were laid off from the Police Department.
We subsequently got three of these positions back but lost the fourth officer to the Vineland Police Department.
Commissioner Vanaman got a $314,917 grant for the Fire Department that cost the city $39,491 in matching grants from city taxpayers.
This grant supposedly was to purchase a new ladder truck to replace the 10-year-old ladder truck already in use.
Millville needs every police officer it can get with the serious crime and gang activity that is plaguing our city.
We lost our street crimes unit and DARE program from the schools.
He has promoted unqualified officers over qualified officers, such (as) sergeants promoted to captain over qualified lieutenants by giving them the title of "acting captain" or "acting chief," which is against civil service rules and causes much problems with morale in the police department.
As the last weeks of 2011 go out with gunshots ringing over the city, we request your support to remove (Commissioner) Vanaman from his office and begin to return the city of Millville to the more peaceful city it was in the past.

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MILLVILLE - A small group of Millville residents seeking to oust City Commissioner David Vanaman from office will try to add a "recall" question to the November general election ballot.

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The committee and Vanaman both chose to file statements.

The issues for the recall committee are whether Vanaman has a conflict of interest because of his position as treasurer of the city's volunteer firefighters organization and Vanaman's performance overseeing the police department.Vanaman is Millville's public safety director.

Vanaman told The Daily Journal the accusations are false but he did not intend to argue the case in newspapers.

Vanaman noted one of the recall committee's members is Robert McQuade.

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"I believe this whole issue stems from the city's refusal to give him (McQuade) a job as a special officer that we don't currently need," Vanaman said.

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"It is a conflict for Vanaman to be on the commission if he's doing the Fire Department and Police Department.

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The recall idea isn't popular with Vanaman's fellow commissioners, who especially flinched at the thought of spending $60,000.

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Mayor Tim Shannon said, "The bottom line is I support Commissioner Vanaman."

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A small group of Millville residents seeking to oust City Commissioner David Vanaman from office will try to add a 'recall' question to the November general election ballot.